“This is mainly because these sectors see spending mostly in cash which people are being forced to postpone because of the currency crunch," said Naveen Kukreja of Paisabazaar.com.

Credit facilitating websites are seeing a drop in enquiries and loan processing in specific segments like housing, car loans and personal loans.

MUMBAI: There are very few enquiries for personal loans these days with people postponing their big-ticket purchases and consumption plans as a result of the currency crunch. At the same time, there has been a spurt in demand for credit cards.

Credit facilitating websites, which process applications for banks and NBFCs (non-banking finance companies), are seeing a drop in enquiries and loan processing in specific segments like housing, car loans and personal loans.

“Salaried personal loan segment has seen a 9-11% drop in enquiries as people are pushing back their discretionary spends mostly for consumption purposes, holidays and home renovation,“ said Naveen Kukreja, cofounder of Paisabazaar.com.

“This is mainly because these sectors see spending mostly in cash which people are being forced to postpone because of the currency crunch."

Another segment which has seen a drastic slowdown in demand is housing loans and automobile loans, says industry insiders as people are waiting for a correction in real estate prices. Industry executives said that people expect property prices to go down post the government's war on black money. This is making them postpone their plans to purchase a house.

“On an average, there has been a 20% reduction in demand and enquiries for home loans and auto loans. This is because people don't have the cash needed for down payments,“ said Adhil Shetty, founder of Bankbazaar, which works with a host of banks and NBFCs for loan processing.

However, demand for credit card products have gone up between 15% and 20% across banks.“We have received around 12 million visitors last month, up from 9 million and that was driven mostly by demand for credit cards,“ said Shetty.

Businesses, which are cash dependent, have also taken a hit. With cash flow drying up, banks are going slow in lending to this segment.